Fallen
by Mana-Garmr
Summary: Sequel to The Reaper. Crossover fic that talks about Axel's childhood, continues with Reno's story. M/M, Yaoi. Individual chapter warnings inside.
1. Prologue Falling

**Warnings:** Some language

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_Prologue - Falling_

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_Year 479, Gaian Calendar – Year 732, Twilight Calendar_

The streets of Sector 5 were dark, quiet. The sun had set above the Plate, and all was dark below. No stars or moon shone to illuminate the streets; only a few weakly-flickering street lamps provided any visibility to see by.

A small figure staggered slowly down the street, dressed in an oversized t-shirt and faded jeans, one of the knees worn out. An old battered knapsack hung from his shoulders and in his arms was a wrapped bundle, large enough compared to his own small stature that his steps were slow and uneven, and he had to pause frequently to catch his breath. Breathing hard and only about halfway to his destination, he veered into an alley beside an old restaurant, closed for the night, and collapsed on top of an empty vegetable crate. The bundle in his arms squirmed at the jarring sensation, letting out a single plaintive cry before the boy who carried him looked down and smiled. A pair of bright green eyes peeked out from the folds of the blanket and the infant inside let out a sharp squeal, reaching a tiny hand up toward the boy's face. Grinning, and blowing raspberries at the infant to make him laugh, the boy didn't realize that anyone else was there until a dark shadow fell across the crate, and someone began to speak.

"Well, well, well… what do we have here?"

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Melryn Tavernon was bored. Night had fallen over the city of Midgar, and even in the gang-infested streets of Sector 4 it was quiet. The gang fights were done for the day, the darkness of that particular Sector making it virtually impossible to see, and the only area of the Slums that was still bustling was Wall Market. Since Don Corneo's thugs had a monopoly on that area, it was off-limits to the thieves and pick-pockets, so when darkness fell over Midgar, the gangs disappeared, their members scattering and vanishing into the gloom. Unfortunately for night-owls like Mel, that meant that there was nothing to do except wander or waste money in Wall Market.

Sighing and raking a hand through his shaggy mop of hair, Mel wandered from Sector 4 over into 5, prepared to spend another evening wandering the streets. A flash of red caught his eye.

'_What the…_' Walking down the street across from him was a young boy, staggering under the weight of a bundle in his arms. It was his hair that had caught Mel's attention; even in the dark gloom of the barely-working street lamps it flared a vivid red, spiked out in a wild halo around the boy's head. Intrigued, and wondering why the hell a kid that young was walking the streets at night alone, Mel watched until the boy turned into an alley, following a discreet distance behind. Right as he rounded the corner, a high-pitched squeal sounded from the bundle in the kid's arms, and the hand of an infant reached out of the wrapped blankets. Grinning down at the baby in his arms, the boy didn't even notice Mel until he was right on top of him.

"Well, well, well… what do we have here?"

The boy glared up at him, immediately holding the baby closer to his chest in a protective gesture. "None of your business!"

Mel cocked an eyebrow. "Seriously? You've got a hell of an attitude for a little kid walking the streets at night hauling a baby around with you." The boy scowled, and Mel shook his head. "I'm Mel." He stuck out his hand, but the boy scowled and ignored it, busying himself keeping the baby occupied instead of acknowledging the attempt at a handshake. "You're not even going to tell me your name?"

"Jimmy." He looked back at Mel, the still-present scowl on his face making it clear that Mel could go jump off a bridge for all he cared. Mel sighed.

"Seriously though, what _are_ you doing? That baby can't be yours, you're just a little kid. Running away?"

The glare deepened. "Stop calling me a little kid! You're just a kid too, you know." He muttered something under his breath that was too low to be intelligible, but Mel was pretty sure it was an insult. "And anyway, I'm not running away." He frowned, looking away, and his next words were mumbled. "They'd come looking for me anyway."

Mel leaned against the wall, unfazed. Plenty of kids in the Slums had abusive parents; his own were long dead, and one more unloved street rat wasn't anything to get bothered by around here. "So… you decided to take your little brother on a walk through the slums then? Brilliant." He rolled his eyes. "Listen, _kid_, they'll probably just be pissed off that you took him out of the house. You may as well head home, you can hardly carry him anyway."

Jimmy's gaze turned heated, and he hauled himself to his feet, bracing his legs apart to keep his balance when the added weight of his brother made him sway. "I can carry him just fine! Besides, I said they'd come looking for _me_. They don't care about Axel, I'm the one who feeds him and takes care of him anyway; they won't come looking for _him_."

_Now_ Mel was concerned; street rats were nothing, but dumping your baby brother in a trash heap somewhere was an entirely different story. "So… what did you say you were doing with him again?"

Jimmy rolled his eyes. "I didn't say _anything_. And I'm taking him to an orphanage." Mel stared at him for a minute, then burst out laughing.

"You're going to carry him all the way across the city to the orphanage? By _yourself_?" Another scowl was all he got in reply. "Do you want some help?"

Jimmy snorted. "I don't need any help from you. Now stop talking to me, you're wasting my time."

Mel shook his head admiringly. "You're fuckin' crazy kid. You ever wanna come join my gang, you're more than welcome. We could use crazy little bastards like you."

Jimmy glanced at him for a moment, then turned, stuck his nose in the air with a huff, and walked away. Mel watched him as he disappeared into the night. "Fucking incredible."

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**A/N:**

And here you have it, the story of how Reno met Mel. Reno's a snotty little bastard sometimes… Mel is only 12 at this point in his life… but like I mentioned in _Reaper_, street rats grow up fast around here :p

I lied about the epilogue of _Reaper_ being the prologue of _Fallen_...

Anywho, the first part of this will probably cover Axel's childhood. I'm also going to start writing Rude's story, since I want that to be finished before I return to Reno in this story (it will make this story, and parts of _Reaper_, make a lot more sense).

**Reviews from **_**The Reaper**_** epilogue:**

**Jennie300303 – -**pats back- hopefully this makes up for it ;)

**D0rkgoddess – **Glad you enjoyed it :) There will be a while before I get around to explaining the cliffhanger (we have approximately 18 years of Axel's life to get through before we get there :p) but there's a good story behind it, I promise ;)

**Etrixan – **hehe, I almost forgot to add her in. Thank God I needed a friendly counterbalance to Mama's hostility –whew- It's about time Reno gets to be part of a nice family :) I've tortured him enough for him to deserve it…

**Cat()** – lol, thanks :)

**Skreech** – will be explained at some point during this story… eventually :p Suffice to say that he never actually hit the ground…


	2. Ch 1 Boiling Water

**1/21/2010: Updated the dates in preparation for the next chapter and some changes that I'm making to the timeline.**

**Warnings:** None really...

NO, this is not going to be a primarily KH fic – no matter how much Axel dominates the story in the first few chapters.

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Chapter One – Boiling Water

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_491 Gaian Calendar, 744 Twilight Calendar_

The streets of Twilight Town were dark as night fell, and wet from the rain that had fallen that afternoon. A blur of pale skin and red hair flashed through the darkness, their owner reflecting in the puddles briefly before he splashed through them, the sound of his frightened footfalls loud in the darkness. The chill air tore at his throat and lungs, the muscles in his sides burned as badly as the ones in his legs as a result, but he didn't dare slow down, didn't dare stop to try and catch his breath. They were coming for him, even if he didn't really know why. He was always such a good kid.

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He had never been liked very much at the orphanages. Oh, the adults liked him well enough when he was still tiny, but as he grew, that all changed. It wasn't really that he was a bad kid, per say, he was just… adventurous. And loud, and perhaps a bit too smart for his own good. "A handful," as some of the adults would say, shaking their heads before leaving him to sit in the dreaded Time Out all alone.

Most of the kids didn't like him right from the start. His hair was a bright, vibrant red, and that instantly made him a target for teasing and bullying, which in turn made him a quick outcast. Add that to the fact that he really _was_ smart, and by the time he and the other children were enrolled in classes, most of the others actively _hated_ him… which might be part of the reason why he was always concocting new "adventures" to try out.

His wild behavior led to a distinct lack of eager foster parents to take him home, and so Axel found himself shuffled to and from several different orphanages by the time he was 11. He was told that he originally came from Midgar, but the orphanage there had burned down shortly after his arrival, and he was sent to Traverse Town (and the other kids who knew the story always made sure to suggest that the orphanage burned down because _he_ was there). He was transferred between four different orphanages in Traverse Town, and finally wound up being shuttled off-world again and sent to Twilight Town, where the adoption agencies hoped that a new population of people, coupled with the town's close proximity to Hollow Bastion, would finally ensure that the youth would finally leave his reputation behind and find a home. Regardless of their wishes, it still took almost a year before the Leonharts showed up.

Axel was 12 by the time he met Leon (Squall, really, although he never liked to admit it) and Aerith (who was the very definition of "mother", if only Axel had had any idea what such a thing was). They didn't seem to care that he was already 12 years old (far past the typical adoption age) and that he had a reputation as a troublemaker. Leon, as Axel later discovered, had grown up in an orphanage himself, alone and unwanted, and was determined that nobody would grow up in such a place until they were simply too old to stay if _he_ could help it. Aerith had no such sad history, but she was a rarity in that she believed that all people deserved a second chance (or in Axel's case, a seventh, which was a lucky number anyway and might have had something to do with it). Axel found himself going home to Hollow Bastion with the only family he could ever remember having, his only possessions a few changes of clothes provided by the orphanage and a small envelope with Axel written on it in a child's handwriting.

He never lost his spirit for adventure, although the adventures turned into real explorations instead of the pranks that he used to pull on the other children and adults, who had been fairly awful to him for the majority of his life. He was a good kid, so grateful that someone had adopted him and loved him that he would do anything at all for them – and thank the Gods that Leon and Aerith were good people (quiet and surly in Leon's part, but warm-hearted in spite of it).

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But it didn't matter how good he was now. Maybe it was because he was so different from everyone else in spite of it all. Maybe it was because he kept an envelope under his pillow, holding a photo of another boy with red hair and blue eyes, along with a note that read in a 6-year-old's scrawl, "I luv yu – Jimmy," or maybe it was for nothing, and he wasn't really lucky after all, but Axel ran, and the shadows chased him.

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Some people said the Heartless were a bunch of miscreants from Traverse Town who had gotten in trouble with the law and wound up in Hollow Bastion. Others said that the gang was actually comprised of magical constructs, as truly heartless as the shadows they worked in. Whatever or whoever they were, everyone agreed that they were looking for something. Some said money, others said virgins to sacrifice; Axel wasn't sure about any of _that_, but he was pretty damned sure that right now, they were looking for _him_. Unfortunately there were only so many places he could run, and when he hit the edge of the lake on the edge of town, he knew he was in trouble. He was a fairly athletic teenager, but now that he was out in the open, he didn't have a chance of continuing to outrun his pursuers. He had gotten winded a while ago, and had only kept ahead of them because of his knowledge of the town's streets and alleyways. Now that the Heartless were upon him, he finally gave up and turned to face them.

They melted out of the shadows almost as if they had been born from them, and Axel couldn't help the shudder that worked its way through his body. They looked human enough at first glance, although they were much darker skinned than he was used to seeing. Their eyes, however, gave them away. They were all yellow, and practically glowed in the darkness. Axel had read stories about the Soldiers back in Midgar having glowing eyes, but he was relatively certain that if these people were Soldiers, they wouldn't be terrorizing the town or chasing after him like hounds might chase a rabbit. When they all smiled simultaneously at him, he was doubly certain that they weren't Soldiers; he was pretty sure that the books would have mentioned Soldiers having pointy teeth. One of them stepped forward from the group, and Axel instinctively stepped back, flinching when his shoes immediately soaked through as he splashed into the lake.

The creature's voice was dry and whispery, reminding Axel uncomfortably of what a snake might sound like if one had the power to speak. Its words didn't make any sense either, and Axel was filled with a growing sense of dread when it finished. "_You… the younger one. Paid for, but never delivered. Run wild for too long, too late for the experiment now… Time to be finished._" All five of them lunged forward before Axel could even begin to ask questions or try to comprehend what the creature's words might mean, and before he could recover from his shock at their movement and begin the struggle, he was underwater, cold hands wrapped tightly around his neck.

At first he panicked, kicking and clawing at the hands before the other grabbed his arms and legs and held him still. Then he was upset, wondering why anyone would want to kill him. Then he was just pissed off. What the hell did these monsters think they were, to creep into his town, chase him all over the place, and then spout off some nonsensical bullshit right before they drowned him? No. Fucking. Way. His anger fueled itself, and instead of his vision fading into black spots as he ran out of air, everything turned red. He didn't feel the water begin to boil around him, didn't register when the hands suddenly let go and jerked away, didn't hear the dying screams of the creatures or the hissing of steam as the water surrounding him boiled and evaporated. Fire filled his vision, was the air rushing through his lungs, the blood in his veins, the only thing he could hear or see… and then it was gone, disappearing into the night with a whoosh. When his eyes finally readjusted to the night sky, he realized that he was alone now, and dry, and unharmed somehow – even though everything around him was charred, the water in the lake boiled and evaporated in the intense heat, the sand of the lakebed now a solid pane of black glass, several feet thick beneath his feet.

He stared down at his hands for several long moments, too numb to really register what he had just done. The first coherent though that flitted across his mind was '_Leon_.' Leon would know what to do, and Aerith. Turning away from the glass lake, he ignored the wailing of fire sirens that were progressively growing louder, pointed his feet back towards the dark alleyways that would lead him home, and he ran.

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A/N:

This is probably a short chapter, but I've decided to alternate chapters between Axel and Reno for this first little piece of the story, instead of combining them like I'd originally planned. The chapters will be shorter as a result, but the transition to Reno's "POV" will be a lot easier this way. That said, look for Reno's part the next chapter :) There actually won't be many more of Axel – probably only one or two parts just to get the timeline to where it needs to be (and of course to explain where Axel is going to go from here, because it's not every day you find out that you can create flames so hot that they burn water, right?)

Umm, pretend that the lake is a sufficient distance away to not set the town on fire, while still sufficiently close enough to reach it before the Heartless caught him, and to get back into town before the fire trucks spot him.

Also obviously took some liberties with what the Heartless actually are. Yay for AU-ness :) I really torment these boys with water, don't I? (and yeah, it paralleled Reno's near-drowning with dear old mom on purpose)

**Reviews!**

**Rita()** – The longer it takes me to update, the more convoluted I seem to decide to make the plot, lol. Reno's suicide attempt in The Reaper is quite the interesting story, and will have a lot of backstory behind it (reaching all the way back to when Reno was just a baby, in fact). It somewhat relates to the history behind Sephiroth, Angeal, and Genesis, but I don't want to give it way before it's explained ;) (although it's hinted at vaguely in this chapter)

**Chibi heishi** – we'll see how easily he recognizes him from a photo from when he was 6, hehe ;) I think they look enough alike though that I'm going to have them recognize each other based on the "mirror effect" alone

**SoldierAngelZack/GrinningCheshireCat9** – yep, that's how they met indeed :) Probably won't be any more mentions of Mel or the rest of Reno's old gang in the story though… although I might bring Sonny's info-gathering usefulness into the picture at some point…

**Infinityinmirrors** – ok, so I know you reviewed in Rude's Prologue, not here, but still… don't get too caught up on The Reaper's epilogue as an "accurate" portrayal of events ;) Not everything is as it appears with this story :p

There are a lot of other reviews for this, The Reaper, Deep Water, and Ears in the Walls (and most of them were from people who say they're reading the whole set, so I feel fairly safe mentioning them in a different story, lol). Thanks to all of you; I don't always have time to reply to individual reviews (especially when I take so long between updates and wind up with a lot of them), and with no more chapters for those other three stories, I don't want you guys thinking that I don't read or appreciate them. I love reading everyone's comments, and it really does help inspire me to keep writing new chapters (even if it sometimes take a retardedly long time :p)

That said, usual blurb about grammar and spelling and such (although a lot of my sentences aren't technically grammatically correct, and I do that on purpose – I've been trying to write the way I tend to think or speak, to try and keep the stories in a more "conversational" tone). Aaanyway… sitting in a hold for flight school right now (whoo, finally made it here!), so hopefully the excessive down-time will mean more story updates ;)


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